This invention relates generally to safety apparatus and more particularly to a harness arranged to be worn by a person to protect him/her from a fall.
As a result of the enactment of various safety laws persons working at elevated height positions, e.g., window washers, telephone lineman, etc., are required to be protected against falls. One common approach to achieve that end is the use of a safety belt which is worn on the worker's waist. The belt is arranged to be worn about the waist of the workman and includes a D-ring or some other metal loop fixedly mounted on the belt in the center of the portion located at the worker's back. The D-ring is arranged to be "tied off" i.e., connected, via a lanyard or some other means, to a supporting member, e.g., a portion of a building or other static structure, a rope grab device mounted on a safety line, etc. Thus, once the worker is tied off should he/she fall off the platform, scaffolding, or other support on which he/she is working or if that platform etc. itself drops or otherwise falls away, the worker will be prevented from falling to the ground.
While such safety belts are generally suitable for their intended purposes they are not designed to act as a primary means for suspending the person at an elevated position to enable him/her to perform some activity while so suspended. In fact such safety belts are generally incapable of such use since they tend to inhibit the person's mobility, thus interfering with the worker's ability to function efficiently when he/she is tied off.
Harnesses have been developed and sold to serve as a means to distribute the shock load across portions of the body of the wearer for fall protection purposes. Such harnesses typically include straps or loops which are arranged to encircle the wearer's thighs, a belt or some other portion to encircle the wearer's waist, and straps extending over the wearer's shoulders. Such harnesses typically also include at least one connection member, e.g., a D-ring, to enable the harness to be connected to some tie-off means for fall protection purposes.
One type of harness is that disclosed in conceding application Ser. No. PCT/US90/06609, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.